volcanohunter

A follow-up on the death of Eva Evdokimova. The search for Rudolf Nureyev’s favorite dance partner’s final resting place https://nypost.com/2019/11/16/the-search-for-rudolf-nureyevs-favorite-dance-partners-final-resting-place/

@Sebastien, have you tried the Russian interface? It's identical to the English one. Once you are logged in through "личный кабинет", you can switch back to English.

@Sebastien I just tried logging in and was successful. However, the site has become even more difficult to use since ReCaptcha screens were introduced during the log-in and when putting tickets into your shopping basket. Are you getting the awful ReCaptcha screens? Unfortunately you can't proceed without them. When this change was first made, I could log in only through the Russian version of the site. After that I could switch back to the English interface.

(Deep breath) G is among the least stable of all consonants. It mutates in one way or another in Greek, the Romance languages (and words of Latin origin in English), Scandinavian languages and Dutch, among others. Among Slavic languages, there is a wide west-to-east strip, encompassing Upper Sorbian, Czech, Slovakian, Belarusian, Ukrainian and Russian as it is spoken in the country's south, in which proto-Slavic (hard) G mutated to H. This is not as strange as it may seem. To some extent something similar happens in Greek, Dutch and Spanish. This phenomenon is not seen in Lower Sorbian, Polish, Russian or the South Slavic languages. What this means is that the Cyrillic letter Г, derived from the Greek Γ (gamma), is pronounced like a hard G in Russian and like H in Ukrainian and Belarusian. (Incidentally, in Greek Γ isn't pronounced as G anymore either.) Historically, foreign words entered Russian via Ukrainian, which was, obviously, closer to the West. Latin H would be transliterated as Г (H) in Ukrainian, and the Г (G) would remain in the Russian spelling of the word. This is how Russian ended up with Gans, Gamlet, Garvard, Gollivud, geroi, alkogol', garmoniya, goroskop and, yes, Gamzatti. (In the course of the 20th century, this pathway reversed. Foreign words began entering Ukrainian via Russian. Mashinka is correct; strictly speaking Russian, like many languages, does not have an H sound. Latin H would be transliterated as Х (Kh) in Russian, and the Х would remain in the Ukrainian version of the word, which is how Ukrainian ended up with khokei, khobi and khedkhanter.)

In an Instagram story Kolb acknowledged that he wasn't able to travel. No doubt he asked permission to go on tour, but the Mariinsky cast him in Romeo and Juliet on Nov. 2, La Sylphide on Nov. 6 and Sleeping Beauty on Nov. 9 and 10. Russian theaters can be spiteful that way. As for Iosifidi, she is nealy six feet tall and can't dance with just anyone, I would have thought that even Kolb is on the small side for her. She was also cast in a shows on Oct 29 and Nov. 4, making it impossible for her to travel.

Especially when the company works a stone's throw from the Kremlin. But viewers have a right to know that the "live" they are streaming is not live. And I think it's better if they understand that they're being shown nothing like the entire company, and that if they're not seeing certain dancers consistently, it's more likely because they're not favored by management, rather than because they're not interested in participating. I'm very sorry that the Bolshoi is so far from the spirit of the event. I hope the National Ballet of Canada and San Francisco Ballet find the time and resources to rejoin. Their presence is also needed to eliminate the aftertaste of the Bolshoi's insincerity. I say that as a genuine admirer of the Moscow style who despairs over what is happening to the Bolshoi.

Well, there was also this post from Ekaterina Shipulina mocking the Bolshoi's contribution: "World Ballet Day.✌️ From those who were not invited to the 'live' shoot.😜🎬📽️ My own live report.👍😝" In response to the question whether she could at least have taken part in the broadcast's classes, which were so sparsely attended, Shipulina replied, "In our [theater] this entire comedy was recorded in advance and strictly by invitation. There was no live transmission, as in other theaters, unfortunately!😳" In response to another question, "a 'live' recorded a week in advance according to party lists?" she answered, "staged and edited😂". She's not the first Bolshoi dancer to say publicly that dancers are pre-selected for every aspect of the shoot, even morning class. So I wouldn't take any of it at face value.

There is a reference on p. 221 of The Thorns and Roses of Big [Bolshoi] Ballet in which he identifies Akimov and Nikonov as the official leaders of the ballet company's Communist Party cell, who used this influence to advance their pupils, whom Lagunov did not think deserved it. Lagunov does not sugarcoat his views, highlighting the shortcomings of his own pupils as well.

Perhaps, but reality is often more complex that we realize. For example, in his memoirs Valery Lagunov, another Bolshoi coach, described Akimov and Vladimir Nikonov as Party stooges.

I think it's fair to say she spent years preparing for the job. Kudelka became director in 1996. She retired in 1997, and in 1998 she became Artistic Associate. She spent years shadowing Kudelka, but never challenged his authority. When he left, she was an obvious successor, not least because her name was a powerful fundraising tool. I think Côté is also angling for the job, and for a number of years he has been AD of a summer arts festival, gaining administrative experience. He also has some very well-heeled admirers, although dancers today are nothing like the household names of generations past. It wouldn't be possible to convert his popularity into donor cash, as the company has been doing with Kain for almost 15 years.

You are correct. The company cut its losses and performed two parts of the Shostakovich Trilogy instead. She also killed Côté's dreadful Dark Angels. Kain is nothing if not risk averse. But she's overseen some home-grown turkeys also.

My thoughts, too. Though I was hesitant to stick my neck out quite so jubilantly. Of course a lot will depend on her successor. Because in addition to replicating her paint-by-numbers programming, someone else may implement silly ideas. Or she could be succeeded by Guillaume Côté, who might commission ballets from himself every season. But at least we'll be spared the non-stop parade of Kain "anniversaries" that the marketing department seems to come up with every season: 50 years with the National Ballet, KK becomes a senior citizen, 60 years since her first ballet blister...

Because James Kudelka was still director when she retired.

There was no unified stream. Each company streamed its segment on its own platforms, and that's all.

It is called World Ballet DAY and was conceived as a nearly all-day relay between continents. If memory serves, it came to about 20 hours of continuous coverage. That was the selling point. Once the primary North American participants dropped out, this fell by the wayside. It used to be very convenient watching the stream on a single channel. Now indeed there is a lot of overlap in the Pacific and even more in Europe, and I honestly wonder how many people are willing to go stream-hopping. Perhaps the initiated, but the point of the event is to popularize the art form, so watching it should be made as easy as possible. And once again the Bolshoi seems to have no end of difficulty understanding the concept of LIVE.